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A REGULAR BOY WRITES LETTER WITH GOOD -TIPS
FOR OTHER REGULAR BOYS
BY JANE WHITAKER
When I first looked at the picture
I thought: "What a regular boy!
I bet he had this taken one day when
he was about tostajt out on a big
adventure to a boy. His eyes have
a gleam and his face is so happy with
that anticipatory happiness that
nothing but anticipation ever brings
in just that way.
"Hum!" I mused. "I bet everyr
thing that happens to him is an ad
venture and his favorite dream is of
the time when he'll lead his family
up to the door of the White House
and say to them: 'Come on in and
make yourselves at home. I live
here. I'm the president.' "
If you are familiar with regular
boys that will give you an idea of
him since I cannot show you his pic
ture, but if you are a boy I want you
to read his letter, because it has some
crackerjack ideas in it for boys.
"The letter written by a boy who
broke with the gang was great," he
wrote. "A boy understands a boy.
"Boys who are fortunate enough
to receive more than a grammar
school education have a problem as
big and serious as the working boy
has. In both cases when you are
good and tired you go home and for
get the 'gang,' but with the school
boy and office boy, whose work is
mental and not really physically tir
ing, there is surplus energy that is a
serious question to the average boy
and troublesome to the serious
thinking boy. In his own way the
boy who wrote to you has worked
out a plan of salvation that will fit
great majority.
"How many school boys do not get
10 bed this side of 10 or 11, or more
often 12, o'clock, which practice will
later cause them to lead mediocre
lives and never really live at all, as
their work will be either gotten or
not gotten by a medium-sized effort
1 not worth while.
"Citing my personal case, I kept
late hours, not sticking to a 'gang,'
but still wasting the hours and
strength without realizing the value
of a sturdy constitution that regular
hours would bring until I got a morn
ing paper route. Bain, snow, cold
and always dark, rising at 3 every
morning (which necessitated retir
ing at 7).
"Hard? Yes! But I soon learned
to throw back my shoulders, breathe
in the fresh morning air, and 'little
slips' back to late hours grew farther
and farther apart until a clear out
look into a future of myself as a
strong, sturdy, clean man is the re
sult. There are many ways to
achieve that goal and this is one-, but
they are all included under the truth
that when the boy starts to ''think'
the danger is most over.
"Am I right, Miss Whitaker? And
by looking ahead at yourself ten or
twenty years from now, when one is
able to do big things then 'adventur
ing' is possible in the big and right
way. That does not mean day
dreaming, does it, for it does make
every-day work much easier
"I wish the boy who wrote to you
had let his name be printed, as it
backs a thing up stronger and makes
you feel closer together, and it is that
cSnnected feeling that often saves a
fellow.
"I like a 'hobby,' if a boy is lucky
enough to have one; if not, he should
cast about and get one. Saving
stamps, curios or rare insects and
butterflies acts like a magnate draw
ing one on. A vest pocket camera
was my ambition. Now I feel lost
without it, so always carry it' with
me. It makes you feel bigger when
you have some individual peculiarity
that steadies you.
"Dear Miss Whitaker, I talk as if
I know, but I won't crow yet, for I
am not out of the woods, though I
do see a light -ahead as every bojr
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